With so many types of schooling and educational infrastructures available, it can sometimes be challenging to decide which school is most suitable for various needs whether it be regarding special education or various levels of discipline, for example. Private schooling differs from public education in various ways, each having different educational approaches and missions. Alternatives to conventional public and private schooling include Charter, Montessori, College Prep, Catholic, and Boarding schools. Within each of these schools, athletics, sexual education, special education and the implementation of discipline all have disadvantages and advantages, as well as various controversies concerning each topic. Each school has a different philosophy and myriad principles that combine together in order to yield an educational environment where students are hopefully able to grow mentally, physically, and emotionally.
II. Research Summary
When our group sat down and brainstormed about the educational issues we wanted to research, we could not decide on one specific topic that fit all of our interests. We decided to compare private schools and public schools because then we could each research an educational issue that was interesting to us as well as find the differences and similarities between private schools and public schools.
Special Education (Sasha Gold):
After discussing all of the possible topics we could research, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to research and discuss special education in both private and public schooling systems. I was intrigued to find out more about special education in relation to education after listening to Dr. Bob Shea discuss the difficulties, he himself, has faced as a parent of a son with disabilities. Prior to researching this topic I was unaware of the fact that special education has caused much controversy. After finding various articles, such as Special Education: Public schools pressed to pay for private schooling from the Chicago Tribune, it became clear that people are becoming increasingly frustrated with the influx of students with special needs that are joining the private school systems; tax payers are required to pay for special education students and are therefore questioning the value of allowing them to be placed within these schools or “mainstreamed”. Additionally, because parents can seek reimbursement from private schools after enrolling their students, many have moved their child from a public school setting into a private school setting. Although I don’t think it is necessarily fair that people that don’t have children with disabilities should be held accountable for paying for those that do, but I do believe that it is essential so that everyone is able to attain an education, regardless of their cognitive or physical abilities. Additionally, after researching the brief history of special education I came across the fact that every child with special needs is entitled to a “Free Public Education” under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Special education is definitely not perfect in public schooling systems either and there is some controversy prevalent within those systems as well. I came to find that the concept of including special needs students into regular classrooms is a relatively new phenomenon that is commonly referred to as integration or mainstreaming. This causes controversy because some are uncomfortable with the fact that segregation of the students will occur based on differences in learning styles and abilities.
Overall, special education is essential as there are many students that have disabilities that disallow them to think at the same level as other students cognitively, emotionally, or mentally and therefore it is essential that they are provided with enough resources to attain a proper education, whether it be in a public school or private school. It is unfortunate that many schools suffer with finding proper staff that can contribute to an effective special education program; however, there are many schools that solely focus their attention on education students with special needs.
Discipline (Emma Kilbane):
For my portion of the project, I thought it would be interesting to discuss how discipline varies in the private school system compared to the public education system. Discipline is a huge controversy among parents, educators, and schools officials. Many believe that it is difficult to find a true disciplinary balance in schools, claiming that there is either a major lack of discipline within a school system, or the rules my be too restrictive for the student. I wanted to emphasize the various approaches, both positive and negative, that private and public schools use to address discipline within the separate institutions. The articles I found, such as Thomas Billiteri's "Discipline in Schools," and Aaron H. Caplan's "The Human Rights of Students In Public Schools," really helped me establish a basic knowledge of these differences between private and public schools. Some of the articles also provided inside knowledge and opinions on different methods of discipline, allowing me to truly examine both the positive and negative aspects. It was interesting to see private schoolteacher, Andrew Weiner's thoughts on some private schools' approach to discipline in "How We Discipline Students Is Worse Than Their Behavior." The main difference I found from these articles can be summed up by the idea that private schools create individual contracts for students to follow, while in public schools, a student has human rights that cannot be violated. Private schools are able to create their own individual contracts that, upon signing voluntarily, a student must follow. Unlike public schools, private school officials have the latitude to basically run the school exactly how they would like it to be run, as long as the rules do not violate public policy. In public schools, a student has constitutional rights that cannot be violated, which sometimes complicates disciplinary policies and blurs an effective disciplinary method. As I dug further into my topic, it was clear to see that every school, both private (each school forms individual contract) and public (each district creates policies and codes of conduct), have varied ways of taking disciplinary actions.
Athletics (Hannah Gardner):
I decided to research the differences and similarities between athletics in private schools and public schools. I decided to do some background research to begin by looking at the effects of athletic participation on academic performance. The journal article by Stephen Lipscomb showed the relationship between the two. The data he collected proved that athletic involvement increased math and science test scores by 2% and increased the number of years the athlete attended school after high school. A similarity between private and public school athletics is, if they are in the same league, they must follow the same rules. Many people think that private schools can make their own rules when it comes to athletics but it is the league that makes the rules, not the school. However, both schools get funding from different sources. Private schools receive money from tuition, donations, and endowment and they are allowed to use the money in any way they would like. Public schools, on the other hand, get money from taxes and the government and have to use the money in certain ways. With this in mind, public schools typically have a limited budget to put towards their athletic programs. Both schools typically employ coaches that are also teachers at the school but private schools have the ability to hire coaches outside of the school because of the amount of money they have. Unfortunately there is a lot of controversy surrounding this topic today. Many parents think that athletic leagues should be split between private and public so that way it is fair. But most people only complain when a private school dominates, not when it loses. In addition, funding is a major issue because private schools can put more money towards athletics and parents who send their children to private school usually have enough money to have their children join travel teams and participate in camps and tournaments. These children play the sport year-round so they are constantly improving their athletic ability. Moreover, private schools have "feeding" programs. These programs allow high school coaches to work with middle school coaches so that once the students reach the high school level, they are up to the athletic standards the high school coaches want them to be. Public middle schools have sports at the middle school level but there usually is not as much communication between the two different schools. The final issue between the two types of schools is recruiting rules. A common misconception is that private schools can recruit while public schools cannot. This is false but it is difficult to draw the line as to what is and is not recruiting. Looking back at the research, there are many facts that most people do not completely understand and many people form opinions about private school athletics and public school athletics without being completely informed on the matter.
Sexual Education (Sam Wagner):
I chose to research sex education in public and private schools because I was curious to see how they would differ. After conducting a bit of research, it became evident that the two were definitely different. Firstly, there are several different types of sex education out there ranging from abstinence only to basically covering the entire subject of sex. Abstinence only seems to be favored by catholic schools, which falls under the category of private schools. I had some background information on catholic schools as well. All the catholic schools in Rhode Island are run by the Diocese of Providence. There is a tuition required to attend catholic schools and the majority of them require uniforms. Sex education in catholic school mainly consists of abstinence programs or abstinence-until-marriage programs. Both of these do not offer any information about contraception or safe sex. Basically, students are told don't do it, end of discussion. In privates schools, things don't differ very much from catholic schools. In private schools, many do not even have a health education class where the topic of sex ed. can be brought up. If sex education is covered in private schools, they might be single-sex classrooms, segregating the boys from the girls and teaching specifically about their own sexuality. In public schools however, the majority of sex education classes are coeducational. Boys and girls are in the same classroom learning about each others sexuality. There is a debate over what should be taught where, when and how it should be taught. The debate continues and research shows that no matter where you go or how many years pass there will always be a discrepancy about sex education.
II. Group Product Overview
For the group presentation, we decided it would be best to present the information we gathered by using a Powerpoint. To introduce our topic, we are going to first present the different types of public and private schools, key characteristics of each type, and give examples of schools that are found in Rhode Island. Next, each group member will discuss her question specific to our main topic. Sasha will present her research on special education, Emma will inform us about discipline, Hannah will talk about athletics, and then Sam will talk about sexual education. Each team member discusses how these aspects differ from private to public schools. In order to involve the class, we decided that we will provide each student a survey that deals with our topic of private and public schools. We will allow students a few minutes to think about our questions, and then we hope to generate a lively discussion based on the concepts included in the survey. Students will be able to discuss their opinions and past experiences in the education system. With the information that the class provides, we will draw a conclusion about private schools versus public schools illustrating the differences and similarities between the two types of schools.
Majority Opinion After thoroughly researching and presenting our findings on private and public schools, the group concluded that there are vast differences between the two types of institutions. Although none of us can definitively deem either better or worse, we all acknowledge that there are positive and negative aspects to both private and public schools. Most of the group members did not know just how different some private and public schools can be, but after having researched our topic, we were enlightened. We also agree that differences lay even within the private and public sectors; for example, different districts of public schools probably have different policies, while essentially all private schools foster their own contracts and policies concerning special education, discipline, athletics, and sexual education. Although we were able to generalize the differences between private and pubic educations, if a closer look is taken, it is easy to see how there are vast differences even between two public high schools in neighboring towns, for example.
Individual Opinions
Emma Kilbane:
I was especially interested in my question concerning how discipline differs from public to private schools because my parents are currently facing the decision whether to send my younger brother to a private school for the rest of his elementary education and so on. The controversy of discipline is something I hear a lot about. My mother - who volunteers in my brother's class, and has personally witnessed terrible behavior by many of the students and a major lack of discipline in the classroom - has grown increasing more interested in sending him to a private school in order to avoid such occurrences. I wanted to use this project to see just how different disciplinary actions could be in private schools. Although the main difference is that private schools can form their own contracts and basically have the latitude to implement whichever disciplinary action they choose (as long as it does not violate public policy), I found that it would be essential to really research individual schools. Since each school has the freedom to do as they wish, it is obvious how one private institution would differ from another. In addition, even public schools differ, seeing how policies are established on the district level. My brother's elementary school may use certain methods and techniques that seem to be ineffective, but that does not mean that one of the neighboring town's public elementary school will handle discipline in the same fashion. This was something I did not ever really take into account when thinking about the various techniques and methods of discipline in the two sectors of education, and I feel as though I have learned a lot from completing this assignment.
Hannah Gardner:
I attended public school my whole life until I transferred to a private school after the first quarter of my freshman year of high school. Looking at the research my group collected, I can definitely say that it relates to my opinions from my past experiences. I know that there are pros and cons to each type of school as well as similarities and differences between each sector. Anyone who generalizes "public schools" and "private schools" has not done enough research into the subject because there are so many factors that go into whether a school is successful or not - the students, the teachers, the parents, the rules, the environment, the extracurriculars, etc. I fully supported public school education until I went to high school and I decided that public education was not right for me. I think that education primarily depends on the student. I thrived at the private school that I went to while I know my brother would have struggled if he had gone there. Every person learns differently and I think that there is a school out there for everyone that encompasses their learning style. Thus, everyone can be successful and enjoy the learning process; they just need to find the right match.
Sasha Gold:
I have attended both private and public school throughout my life, which is why I also thought it would be interesting to research both. My experiences at both schools were vastly different, each schooling system having both pros and cons. While in the public school system in first grade I quickly became friends with a boy named Alex, who was diagnosed with Autism. He was unlike everyone else, yet I found him very unique, interesting, and someone I could relate to. Although at times it was difficult to be friends with him, since I couldn't always understand 100% of what he was saying or doing, I assumed almost a protector role; when other kids would talk about how weird he was being I would defend him and inform them that he really was similar to us, but he just had different way of thinking of things and therefore he acted differently. The next year I attended private school for other personal reasons, and unfortunately lost touch with Alex, yet, I will always remember him and our friendship. Furthermore, this project sort of got me frustrated at the people that didn't think students with special needs should have the same rights as children without disabilities and although I understand why they were getting frustrated, it still bothered me that the inclusion of special education has caused such controversy. Moreover, I always thought it must have been difficult for Alex to be surrounded with so many people that didn't understand him and also difficult for his mother to decide whether or not to mainstream him in the public educational system. Additionally, after hearing what Dr. Bob Shea had to say about the special education system and how it has caused some discomfort for his son with special needs and his family, I decided to dig a little bit deeper to determine what the root of the controversy was in relation to special education and why so many were struggling within the system.
Sam Wagner:
I found sex education to be an interesting topic to research. While discovering the differences between public and private schools, it was interesting to read some of the opinionated pieces about sex education. From hearing about the difference between public and private schools from my own research and that of my peers, I don't see a lesser education from public school. I went to public school my entire life. I've experienced sex education from the public school system. I think sex education should be taught openly in schools because I believe that children need to be aware of the consequences of their actions, but also aware that it is a part of life. Overall, I think public schools and sex education are the way to go.
EDC 102 Issue: Private Schools vs. Public Schools
I. Description of Problem or Issue
With so many types of schooling and educational infrastructures available, it can sometimes be challenging to decide which school is most suitable for various needs whether it be regarding special education or various levels of discipline, for example. Private schooling differs from public education in various ways, each having different educational approaches and missions. Alternatives to conventional public and private schooling include Charter, Montessori, College Prep, Catholic, and Boarding schools. Within each of these schools, athletics, sexual education, special education and the implementation of discipline all have disadvantages and advantages, as well as various controversies concerning each topic. Each school has a different philosophy and myriad principles that combine together in order to yield an educational environment where students are hopefully able to grow mentally, physically, and emotionally.II. Research Summary
When our group sat down and brainstormed about the educational issues we wanted to research, we could not decide on one specific topic that fit all of our interests. We decided to compare private schools and public schools because then we could each research an educational issue that was interesting to us as well as find the differences and similarities between private schools and public schools.Special Education (Sasha Gold):
After discussing all of the possible topics we could research, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to research and discuss special education in both private and public schooling systems. I was intrigued to find out more about special education in relation to education after listening to Dr. Bob Shea discuss the difficulties, he himself, has faced as a parent of a son with disabilities. Prior to researching this topic I was unaware of the fact that special education has caused much controversy. After finding various articles, such as Special Education: Public schools pressed to pay for private schooling from the Chicago Tribune, it became clear that people are becoming increasingly frustrated with the influx of students with special needs that are joining the private school systems; tax payers are required to pay for special education students and are therefore questioning the value of allowing them to be placed within these schools or “mainstreamed”. Additionally, because parents can seek reimbursement from private schools after enrolling their students, many have moved their child from a public school setting into a private school setting. Although I don’t think it is necessarily fair that people that don’t have children with disabilities should be held accountable for paying for those that do, but I do believe that it is essential so that everyone is able to attain an education, regardless of their cognitive or physical abilities. Additionally, after researching the brief history of special education I came across the fact that every child with special needs is entitled to a “Free Public Education” under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Special education is definitely not perfect in public schooling systems either and there is some controversy prevalent within those systems as well. I came to find that the concept of including special needs students into regular classrooms is a relatively new phenomenon that is commonly referred to as integration or mainstreaming. This causes controversy because some are uncomfortable with the fact that segregation of the students will occur based on differences in learning styles and abilities.Overall, special education is essential as there are many students that have disabilities that disallow them to think at the same level as other students cognitively, emotionally, or mentally and therefore it is essential that they are provided with enough resources to attain a proper education, whether it be in a public school or private school. It is unfortunate that many schools suffer with finding proper staff that can contribute to an effective special education program; however, there are many schools that solely focus their attention on education students with special needs.
Discipline (Emma Kilbane):
For my portion of the project, I thought it would be interesting to discuss how discipline varies in the private school system compared to the public education system. Discipline is a huge controversy among parents, educators, and schools officials. Many believe that it is difficult to find a true disciplinary balance in schools, claiming that there is either a major lack of discipline within a school system, or the rules my be too restrictive for the student. I wanted to emphasize the various approaches, both positive and negative, that private and public schools use to address discipline within the separate institutions. The articles I found, such as Thomas Billiteri's "Discipline in Schools," and Aaron H. Caplan's "The Human Rights of Students In Public Schools," really helped me establish a basic knowledge of these differences between private and public schools. Some of the articles also provided inside knowledge and opinions on different methods of discipline, allowing me to truly examine both the positive and negative aspects. It was interesting to see private schoolteacher, Andrew Weiner's thoughts on some private schools' approach to discipline in "How We Discipline Students Is Worse Than Their Behavior." The main difference I found from these articles can be summed up by the idea that private schools create individual contracts for students to follow, while in public schools, a student has human rights that cannot be violated. Private schools are able to create their own individual contracts that, upon signing voluntarily, a student must follow. Unlike public schools, private school officials have the latitude to basically run the school exactly how they would like it to be run, as long as the rules do not violate public policy. In public schools, a student has constitutional rights that cannot be violated, which sometimes complicates disciplinary policies and blurs an effective disciplinary method. As I dug further into my topic, it was clear to see that every school, both private (each school forms individual contract) and public (each district creates policies and codes of conduct), have varied ways of taking disciplinary actions.Athletics (Hannah Gardner):
I decided to research the differences and similarities between athletics in private schools and public schools. I decided to do some background research to begin by looking at the effects of athletic participation on academic performance. The journal article by Stephen Lipscomb showed the relationship between the two. The data he collected proved that athletic involvement increased math and science test scores by 2% and increased the number of years the athlete attended school after high school. A similarity between private and public school athletics is, if they are in the same league, they must follow the same rules. Many people think that private schools can make their own rules when it comes to athletics but it is the league that makes the rules, not the school. However, both schools get funding from different sources. Private schools receive money from tuition, donations, and endowment and they are allowed to use the money in any way they would like. Public schools, on the other hand, get money from taxes and the government and have to use the money in certain ways. With this in mind, public schools typically have a limited budget to put towards their athletic programs. Both schools typically employ coaches that are also teachers at the school but private schools have the ability to hire coaches outside of the school because of the amount of money they have. Unfortunately there is a lot of controversy surrounding this topic today. Many parents think that athletic leagues should be split between private and public so that way it is fair. But most people only complain when a private school dominates, not when it loses. In addition, funding is a major issue because private schools can put more money towards athletics and parents who send their children to private school usually have enough money to have their children join travel teams and participate in camps and tournaments. These children play the sport year-round so they are constantly improving their athletic ability. Moreover, private schools have "feeding" programs. These programs allow high school coaches to work with middle school coaches so that once the students reach the high school level, they are up to the athletic standards the high school coaches want them to be. Public middle schools have sports at the middle school level but there usually is not as much communication between the two different schools. The final issue between the two types of schools is recruiting rules. A common misconception is that private schools can recruit while public schools cannot. This is false but it is difficult to draw the line as to what is and is not recruiting. Looking back at the research, there are many facts that most people do not completely understand and many people form opinions about private school athletics and public school athletics without being completely informed on the matter.Sexual Education (Sam Wagner):
I chose to research sex education in public and private schools because I was curious to see how they would differ. After conducting a bit of research, it became evident that the two were definitely different. Firstly, there are several different types of sex education out there ranging from abstinence only to basically covering the entire subject of sex. Abstinence only seems to be favored by catholic schools, which falls under the category of private schools. I had some background information on catholic schools as well. All the catholic schools in Rhode Island are run by the Diocese of Providence. There is a tuition required to attend catholic schools and the majority of them require uniforms. Sex education in catholic school mainly consists of abstinence programs or abstinence-until-marriage programs. Both of these do not offer any information about contraception or safe sex. Basically, students are told don't do it, end of discussion. In privates schools, things don't differ very much from catholic schools. In private schools, many do not even have a health education class where the topic of sex ed. can be brought up. If sex education is covered in private schools, they might be single-sex classrooms, segregating the boys from the girls and teaching specifically about their own sexuality. In public schools however, the majority of sex education classes are coeducational. Boys and girls are in the same classroom learning about each others sexuality. There is a debate over what should be taught where, when and how it should be taught. The debate continues and research shows that no matter where you go or how many years pass there will always be a discrepancy about sex education.II. Group Product Overview
For the group presentation, we decided it would be best to present the information we gathered by using a Powerpoint. To introduce our topic, we are going to first present the different types of public and private schools, key characteristics of each type, and give examples of schools that are found in Rhode Island. Next, each group member will discuss her question specific to our main topic. Sasha will present her research on special education, Emma will inform us about discipline, Hannah will talk about athletics, and then Sam will talk about sexual education. Each team member discusses how these aspects differ from private to public schools. In order to involve the class, we decided that we will provide each student a survey that deals with our topic of private and public schools. We will allow students a few minutes to think about our questions, and then we hope to generate a lively discussion based on the concepts included in the survey. Students will be able to discuss their opinions and past experiences in the education system. With the information that the class provides, we will draw a conclusion about private schools versus public schools illustrating the differences and similarities between the two types of schools.III. Visual Representation
IV. Research Questions and Reference Summaries
V. Group Reaction/Opinion(s) about Issue
Majority OpinionAfter thoroughly researching and presenting our findings on private and public schools, the group concluded that there are vast differences between the two types of institutions. Although none of us can definitively deem either better or worse, we all acknowledge that there are positive and negative aspects to both private and public schools. Most of the group members did not know just how different some private and public schools can be, but after having researched our topic, we were enlightened. We also agree that differences lay even within the private and public sectors; for example, different districts of public schools probably have different policies, while essentially all private schools foster their own contracts and policies concerning special education, discipline, athletics, and sexual education. Although we were able to generalize the differences between private and pubic educations, if a closer look is taken, it is easy to see how there are vast differences even between two public high schools in neighboring towns, for example.
Individual Opinions
Emma Kilbane:
I was especially interested in my question concerning how discipline differs from public to private schools because my parents are currently facing the decision whether to send my younger brother to a private school for the rest of his elementary education and so on. The controversy of discipline is something I hear a lot about. My mother - who volunteers in my brother's class, and has personally witnessed terrible behavior by many of the students and a major lack of discipline in the classroom - has grown increasing more interested in sending him to a private school in order to avoid such occurrences. I wanted to use this project to see just how different disciplinary actions could be in private schools. Although the main difference is that private schools can form their own contracts and basically have the latitude to implement whichever disciplinary action they choose (as long as it does not violate public policy), I found that it would be essential to really research individual schools. Since each school has the freedom to do as they wish, it is obvious how one private institution would differ from another. In addition, even public schools differ, seeing how policies are established on the district level. My brother's elementary school may use certain methods and techniques that seem to be ineffective, but that does not mean that one of the neighboring town's public elementary school will handle discipline in the same fashion. This was something I did not ever really take into account when thinking about the various techniques and methods of discipline in the two sectors of education, and I feel as though I have learned a lot from completing this assignment.Hannah Gardner:
I attended public school my whole life until I transferred to a private school after the first quarter of my freshman year of high school. Looking at the research my group collected, I can definitely say that it relates to my opinions from my past experiences. I know that there are pros and cons to each type of school as well as similarities and differences between each sector. Anyone who generalizes "public schools" and "private schools" has not done enough research into the subject because there are so many factors that go into whether a school is successful or not - the students, the teachers, the parents, the rules, the environment, the extracurriculars, etc. I fully supported public school education until I went to high school and I decided that public education was not right for me. I think that education primarily depends on the student. I thrived at the private school that I went to while I know my brother would have struggled if he had gone there. Every person learns differently and I think that there is a school out there for everyone that encompasses their learning style. Thus, everyone can be successful and enjoy the learning process; they just need to find the right match.Sasha Gold:
I have attended both private and public school throughout my life, which is why I also thought it would be interesting to research both. My experiences at both schools were vastly different, each schooling system having both pros and cons. While in the public school system in first grade I quickly became friends with a boy named Alex, who was diagnosed with Autism. He was unlike everyone else, yet I found him very unique, interesting, and someone I could relate to. Although at times it was difficult to be friends with him, since I couldn't always understand 100% of what he was saying or doing, I assumed almost a protector role; when other kids would talk about how weird he was being I would defend him and inform them that he really was similar to us, but he just had different way of thinking of things and therefore he acted differently. The next year I attended private school for other personal reasons, and unfortunately lost touch with Alex, yet, I will always remember him and our friendship. Furthermore, this project sort of got me frustrated at the people that didn't think students with special needs should have the same rights as children without disabilities and although I understand why they were getting frustrated, it still bothered me that the inclusion of special education has caused such controversy. Moreover, I always thought it must have been difficult for Alex to be surrounded with so many people that didn't understand him and also difficult for his mother to decide whether or not to mainstream him in the public educational system. Additionally, after hearing what Dr. Bob Shea had to say about the special education system and how it has caused some discomfort for his son with special needs and his family, I decided to dig a little bit deeper to determine what the root of the controversy was in relation to special education and why so many were struggling within the system.Sam Wagner:
I found sex education to be an interesting topic to research. While discovering the differences between public and private schools, it was interesting to read some of the opinionated pieces about sex education. From hearing about the difference between public and private schools from my own research and that of my peers, I don't see a lesser education from public school. I went to public school my entire life. I've experienced sex education from the public school system. I think sex education should be taught openly in schools because I believe that children need to be aware of the consequences of their actions, but also aware that it is a part of life. Overall, I think public schools and sex education are the way to go.